This Young Master is not Cannon Fodder-Chapter 695: Humiliation

It was a familiar sensation to Gu Longyu. He wished he weren’t so familiar with it, but that was life. Whenever he encountered Yinian, it seemed that the latter could always manage to threaten him, like now. The destabilization of the Hell Judge War Formation should have weakened his threat, but it increased the threat he displayed instead.

Had Yinian simply held back his sword intent and only unleashed it now?

Gu Longyu didn’t think so. As a possessor of saber intent, he could sense the amount of sword intent contained in the Hell Judge War Formation’s attacks. He had been going all out—at least in terms of attack.

While Gu Longyu mulled over the inconsistencies, his body did not stop.

Rather than fully defending, Gu Longyu wanted to counterattack even at the risk of injury. A golden aura covered his body, making his scales even more resplendent. Faces appeared on either side of his head, and two pairs of arms sprouted from his back, giving him a total of six arms. Two more sabers appeared.

The sabers varied in design and color. One was pitch black like the abyss, while the other was sterling silver. All three of them exuded auras no weaker than that of the Dragonbone Saber. Although the Dragonbone Saber was an artifact embryo carefully prepared for him by the father of his current body, it still couldn’t change the fact that it was ultimately lacking.

Unless Gu Longyu was willing to pay a high price, it would likely only stay at the level of an emperor artifact, said price being equal to or even higher than that of a sovereign artifact. Still, Gu Longyu planned to keep it even after his power outgrew it, since it was an important memento.

All three sabers slashed toward the incoming shadow. Just like his previous strike, the three slashes crossed the threshold of an immortal sovereign—and that was individually. Together, the three attacks showed signs of merging, forming a perfect pattern that raised its power even higher.

Yet, faced with all this, the incoming shadow did not hesitate. If anything, it charged even faster. Soon, the darkness slid off, revealing the shadow’s true appearance.

Yinian! Gu Longyu thought. Unconsciously, his sabers hastened.

As if in response to his actions, Yinian also quickened his movements. The sword tip in Yinian’s grasp seemed to blur as it thrust forward, breaking space and time itself. Gu Longyu even felt the Law of Death contained within the blade. It wasn’t much of a surprise. As the Temple of Death, its members must focus predominantly on the Law of Death. With Yinian’s talent, it wasn’t strange that he could get started on it.

But dabbling in more worldly laws didn’t represent a rise in strength. The farther one went along the road of cultivation, the more important depth in a worldly law became. Even if mastering other laws became a requirement, it was more to use them as nutrients to fuel the primary law.

Gu Longyu didn’t find it strange that Yinian would have this misconception. In fact, when he was an immortal monarch, he had grand ambitions of mastering all laws, but an encounter with a superior foe broke him out of that faulty mindset.

His eyes hardened. Unlike him, Yinian would never have a chance to correct his mindset!

The three sabers of red, black, and silver landed. At the moment of contact, Gu Longyu felt immense resistance. It was as if he had not cut flesh, but divine iron. He gritted his teeth and roared. His blades finally sank, making progress.

Just as his saber was about to continue cutting into Yinian’s flesh, his attack arrived.

The brilliant sword tip made contact with the center of his torso. It was a seemingly light tap that started a ripple on the golden aura. Before the ripple could even spread, the blade easily slid into his chest and broke out the other side.

Gu Longyu’s eyes widened. Even if he had focused more on offense, his defenses shouldn’t have been so weak. In terms of hardness, he could guarantee that it rivaled low emperor-rank materials. Even an average immortal sovereign would struggle to destroy it in less than ten strikes. Yet, Yinian was able to pierce his defenses with one strike.

A regular person would flinch and panic. An expert would keep his calm and retreat while focusing on minimizing all injuries. What did Gu Longyu do?

He doubled down.

Gu Longyu knew that retreat was not an option. Since that was the case, he had to go all out. Once Yinian died, his attacks would disappear—vanish. He didn’t believe Yinian to be more tenacious than he was!

When Yinian felt Gu Longyu’s continuous sabers—every one of them hitting the same cuts he had already suffered—he did not back down. Gu Longyu’s ferocity only made him more determined.

Like a piercing light, Yinian’s sword retracted before stabbing into Gu Longyu’s chest once more. Like the reborn Dragon Emperor, Yinian abandoned all defenses and focused solely on offense. He did not believe he would lose in this war of attrition.

And so, the two lofty immortals abandoned their self-preservation and attacked each other like a pair of dueling beasts. Of course, this abandonment of all defense did not really mean sitting there and taking hits. It simply meant that if they had a choice between attacking or defending, they would choose to attack. If the only option was to defend, they would naturally defend.

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Gu Longyu defended more than Yinian. At first, it was due to his superior control of the battle and long years of experience, but that changed as the battle drew on. Yinian absorbed combat experience like a mushroom and experienced rapid growth. No, it wasn’t just the battle—his years of accumulation finally exploded at this moment.

Countless wounds and injuries covered his body, but they did not leak blood. The wounds revealed an immense world within his body and continuously leaked black qi filled with countless tiny motes of light. The amount of qi he leaked was already three times that of Gu Longyu’s total reserves, but he showed no signs of slowing down.

Like a mirror, Gu Longyu had countless wounds on his body. They leaked the traditional red liquid of life. Some of the wounds had already started scabbing over, but more wounds appeared faster than his body could heal. In the midst of all his wounds, the first one directly in the center of his torso remained, with constant blood flowing out. The wound was like a hole in a bucket, leaking without end. Gu Longyu could feel his qi, vitality, and even immortal sense disappearing little by little.

His immortal body continuously operated, attempting to heal the wound, but it was as if it were dumping water off a cliff. Despite the effort, there were no results—at least not something he could deal with in the heat of battle.

The longer the fight went on, the more fearful Gu Longyu felt.

He could clearly sense that Xi Yinian was still only a four-step monarch, yet he could display power at the immortal sovereign level—not merely reaching the threshold, but solidly within it.

It was a feat no one had ever accomplished in history. Certainly, many geniuses possessed power greater than their current realm. The farther along the path of cultivation one went, the rarer it became. Before the Immortal Realm, there were many such cases, but after reaching it, there might be one or two every ten generations. And such geniuses often rose to unprecedented heights, provided they did not perish.

No immortal had displayed power two realms above their cultivation base. It would be akin to a transcending mortality saint displaying the power of an immortal monarch—possible in theory, but impossible in practice.

Yet here was a live example. He continuously performed a miracle that the reborn Dragon Emperor had not accomplished.

Gu Longyu had never felt envious of anyone’s talent in his entire life. He felt this emotion for the first time. Accompanying it was fear. For the first time since their encounter, Gu Longyu finally felt that his victory was not assured. There was a very real chance of dying under Yinian’s blade.

His invincible confidence faltered, causing a chink in his willpower. If he could not overcome this setback, it might cause his willpower to weaken, lessening his talent. If he could overcome it, his rise would be even more guaranteed, even if his talent could not compare to Yinian’s.

That was still a big if.

The only consolation was that he would not form an inner devil within the Nine Heavens Universe. While crossing the Inner Devil Tribulation meant accepting and overcoming one’s inner doubts, fears, and negative emotions, it didn’t mean that an inner devil couldn’t appear in the future.

Gu Longyu felt powerless. Although he marked Yinian’s body full of wounds, it was clear that he hadn’t dealt any severe damage or struck an important organ. Although Yinian’s immortal body was strange and esoteric, Gu Longyu believed he could crack it. The nature of an immortal body held a core influence on an immortal’s combat power.

More often than not, inhumane immortal bodies like Yinian’s contained severe disadvantages. Take the Vast Sea Immortal Body Gu Longyu had fought before. The possessor of that body was the embodiment of a sea. Attacking it would be akin to attacking the sea itself, making material attacks practically useless, but it was extremely susceptible to soul attacks, among other weaknesses.

Gu Longyu believed he had not yet discovered the weakness of Yinian’s immortal body. However, the situation did not allow him to probe further. If this continued, he would suffer an irreversible injury and likely fall under Yinian’s sword. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Still, Gu Longyu would not give up so easily—at least until a change occurred.

To his shock and horror, Yinian’s aura rose. He had successfully comprehended half of the fifth elemental law, rising to become a fifth-step monarch. That wasn’t the most crucial part. The most impactful part was that his aura did not stop rising and showed signs of breaking through to the Extremity Immortal Realm.

This was a classic case of breaking through in battle. Once that happened, Yinian’s power would rise by a hundredfold, instantly placing Gu Longyu in a precarious situation where victory would become nigh impossible.

Before, it had always been him who gave this feeling to experienced immortals in the cultivation world. His foes—always older and of higher cultivation—would show shock at his talent and ability to transcend his realm. And now, he experienced this feeling himself.

And so, for the first time during their confrontation, Gu Longyu chose to retreat.

He first messaged his companions. While Yinian fought him, another immortal monarch had taken control of the Hell Judge War Formation. The formation did not join the fight between the two and instead helped the lone soul emperor. Luckily, it was aiding the soul emperor rather than opposing him, since war formations were the great enemy of soul cultivators.

The Death Defier Alliance simply did not have many soul cultivators, and practically none at the Extremity Immortal Realm. And even if they did, they would not dispatch a soul emperor to Planet Madarchy for such a risky operation.

Upon receiving his message, they did not expose their intent. Instead, they gradually steered the battleground toward their desired location without alerting anyone. Finally, once Gu Longyu gave the signal, they bolted toward the planet.

At first, the soul emperor and the Hell Judge War Formation were stunned, but they quickly gave chase. Gu Longyu unleashed a powerful attack. Compared to his previous slashes, it did not penetrate deeply into Yinian’s flesh, but it knocked him back hundreds of thousands of meters away. He used this chance to chase after his compatriots.

Yinian immediately gave chase. His body was encased in sword light as he soared through outer space. Unfortunately for him, Gu Longyu’s movement technique was far superior, and he even used a forbidden technique to increase his speed.

The three did not hide upon returning to Planet Madarchy. Instead, they targeted the Interplanetary Teleportation Array Outpost. Without the three immortal emperors, the Hell Judge War Formation, or Yinian protecting it, Gu Longyu and the two immortal emperors destroyed the outpost.

The Interplanetary Teleportation Array Outpost attempted to defend itself by activating the guardian formation and setting up several war formations, but they were too slow, and Gu Longyu and his companions’ attack was too fast.

Ultimately, they destroyed the Interplanetary Teleportation Array Outpost before vanishing.

Before leaving, Gu Longyu stared in the direction of Yinian’s aura.

“This humiliation—I’ve engraved it into my soul!”